First National Bank Building

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's what this building has seen. Built in 1912, this structure was made to impress, and it did not shy away from saying so. We're talking massive Doric columns holding up an elaborate pediment, the whole thing dressed in Neo-Classical styling.

This was not a building that whispered. This was a building that announced itself. And what it was announcing, at the start, was the First National Bank of Fort Stockton.

The bank itself had been established two years before the building went up, so by the time those columns were standing tall, the institution already had some history behind it. For a while, things must have looked just as solid as that stonework. And then came the years of the great depression.

The First National Bank of Fort Stockton did not survive them. The bank failed. Those columns kept standing, though.

Buildings like this have a way of outlasting the ambitions that built them. In 1935, the Pecos County State Bank purchased the structure. That institution had been chartered in 1928, and now it had itself a home that looked every bit the part of a serious financial concern.

The Pecos County State Bank operated right here until 1960. Twenty-five years under those same Doric columns, the same elaborate pediment looking down on Fort Stockton's comings and goings. Two banks, one building, and a whole lot of Texas history standing right there in stone.

What the marker says

Built in 1912, this structure originally housed the First National Bank of Fort Stockton. Established two years earlier, the bank failed during the years of the great depression. In 1935 the building was purchased by the Pecos County State Bank. Chartered in 1928, the financial institution was located here until 1960. The structure exhibits Neo-Classical styling and features massive doric columns that support an elaborate pediment. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1983.